Law & Apple: Samsung Now Owes Apple Another $290 Million

The jury reached a verdict this afternoon in the "Groundhog Day" retrial between Apple and Samsung, and the decision hits Samsung's bank account hard. The ruling brings the total amount Samsung owes Apple fairly close to the original amount the jury decided upon last summer, give or take a hundred million. And despite all the numbers flying around, the biggest story coming out of this courtroom is possibly what the jurors ate for lunch. Read on.

After months of trying to get both sides to agree to a new number, they reached an impasse, with Apple demanding $380 million, and Samsung feeling more like throwing in $52 million. So Judge Koh reluctantly ordered another trial, and today that jury ruled in favor of Apple in the amount of $290 million.

While $290 million was not exactly what Apple was asking for, the amount is much more than what Samsung was hoping to pay. Ultimately, that has to be viewed as a win for Cupertino and an expensive loss for Samsung. Since its executive leadership opted out of even appearing during this trial, it is likely that Samsung was not surprised in the least with this ruling.

Yesterday, when the media was hoping for a swift resolution to the case, the only action from the jury was a request for a different lunch menu. The court initially responded to the jury by advising them that "We will look into this and report back to you tomorrow. There are government procurement rules that need to be checked."

Apparently, those rules were pretty strict, because today's lunch came, once again, from Eric's Deli. Apparently, when faced with yet another day of sourdough sandwiches, the jury decided to wrap things up early this afternoon.

At this point, Samsung still has some options to delay, and based on they way they've treated this trial they will likely exhaust every single one of them. But, it seems certain now that there will be a check in the near future from Samsung payable to Apple for close to $1 billion.

And again, we are left wondering, will this latest defeat be the one to force Samsung to cry uncle and settle with Apple out of court? The next super-trial between the two companies is already scheduled for next spring; how many billion-dollar losses is Samsung willing to absorb to continue its policy of slavishly copying Cupertino?